Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Spring Break Road Trip - Part 1

Hey Everyone - I'm back from our little road trip & am so excited to share our adventures with you! If you follow me on Instagram or Snapchat (bribliss) - you know that we were on the go non-stop. So I'm definitely tired, but so happy that I got to spend time with my family. Livy was an angel last night though & slept 11 hours through the night, in her own crib - so I feel like a new woman today!

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I had Good Friday off from work, but my sister & Matt had to work, so we left Rochester around 4:30 that afternoon. We're pretty familiar with most of the route because it's the same way we go to Myrtle Beach every summer, so we knew we'd stop at Sheetz for a quick dinner & keep moving! It was about an 8 hour trip & the kids were awesome. Ella watched Frozen & The Little Mermaid then fell asleep around 9:30. I snoozed for about an hour, but I felt bad sleeping while Britt & Matt were driving after working all day, so I napped from 10 to 11 then helped navigate the part of the trip that was unfamiliar for us.

We arrived at the new house at 12:30, unloaded the car & got as much sleep as we could, since the plan was to get on the road for DC by 7:30. Well by the time we all got up, ate breakfast, showered, and saw the house in daylight... it ended up being 8:30 by the time we hit the road, but thankfully there was no traffic!

We drove to the metro station in Vienna, then road the metro into DC for the day. It was a straight shot to The National Mall & very affordable.

Livy loved the metro! But not as much as Ella who kept telling me, "I just love trains."

We got off the metro & saw this pretty sight straight ahead! And people everywhere... the cherry blossoms were at peak bloom this weekend & it was packed! Once we got away from the Washington Monument it got better, but still between the crowds & everything that just happened in Brussels, I was on high alert all day.

The cherry blossoms were spectacular though. I can see why people come to see them each year. They make The Mall magical.

A little fact about me - The Lincoln Memorial is my favorite of all the monuments. It's just so majestic and I have such tremendous respect for Abraham Lincoln. Nobody wanted to climb up to see Abe with me though, and Ella was sleeping so I couldn't use her as my excuse to go to the top. #nexttime

We saw the sites on the National Mall then set off to find lunch. The restaurant we wanted to eat at had a 2 1/2 hour wait, so we ended up eating at TGI Fridays. Not our normal choice, but they had bathrooms & food, so we went with it.

After lunch, we headed for Pennsylvania Avenue to see the White House.

They were setting up for the Easter Egg Roll, so you couldn't get very close, but I just love The White House & had been trying to explain it to Ella all week long, so we got as close as we could!

After The White House, we intended to go to The Smithsonian Museum of American History to see the Wegmans Wonderplace & First Ladies exhibits. The line to get in was absolutely insane though & everyone was getting tired, so we opted to head back to the metro instead.

We got home around 5 & had no desire to go out again for dinner. My parents didn't have anything to cook though, since they'd just moved in on Wednesday. Britt & I were dying for some Chick-fil-a, so that's what we ran out to get!

#givemeallthenuggets #wafflefriestoo

And I think everyone was in bed at 8 pm because we were so tired! Total party animals here. Check back tomorrow for our Easter recap & then on Friday for the second half of our road trip!